It Never Rains In California...But It Does In Colorado

Slept pretty good last night, in spite of the million or so strange little bugs that shared the tent with us last night.  Note to self: extinguish headlamp prior to opening the tent door so as to not attract the aforementioned bugs!

We hit the road around 8am and headed north on Highway 191, intercepted Interstate 70 east and made it to Grand Junction, CO around 9:45.  After purchasing gas at a mom & pop gas station shaped like a miniature barn, we stopped into Randy's Breakfast Diner for a bite to eat.  Gray clouds could be seen in the distance, and before we finished eating the sky morphed into thick sheets of rain, the kind of rain that this drought weary Californian hasn't seen in several years.  It was awesome to witness, but it also meant that perhaps the days activities would need to be modified.

Leaving the diner, we continued south on Highway 50 toward Montrose, CO (Tim, the road details are for you!) and drove in the rain for 30 minutes or so before the storm moved on and the sun returned and began to dry the road ahead.  In Montrose we stopped at a cool little coffee shop, The Coffee Trader, to replenish our supply of camp coffee, and decided to stop at The Black Canyon of Gunnison National Park...spectacular!  We hiked a few trails, watched a video, then headed back down to Highway 50 and continued east, our goal to reach Salida, CO and camp for the night.  The sky was a mosaic of blue, white and gray, and the wind had stiffened significantly as we plowed on with the windows open.

The countryside was a mix of rolling pastures, scrub brush and rocks, and the occasional cluster of homes and out buildings.  We passed through Gunnison, CO without stopping even though it looked worthwhile, and before long started the climb up Monarch's Pass.  The O.R.E.M was doing fine until it began to protest around 8'000, and we crested the peak at 11,213' barely maintaining 45 mph, which makes tomorrow's Pike's Peak drive all the more interesting to consider.

Tonight we caved in and got a hotel, partly because it was raining and the temp was in the low-fifties with more rain predicted, but mostly because we're old and brittle enough already without factoring in a damp, cold night in a tent.  So here I sit at the Woodland Hotel in Salida, CO, among a motif best described as The Brady Bunch meets Rory Rodgers, warm and dry, happy and tired, part of me missing home, part of me ready for more...and so it goes...

Newton